A Shavian miscellany, comprising autograph letters and cards (the majority signed G. Bernard Shaw), with a few typed, to: (i) Clement Shorter, editor of the Illustrated London News, suggesting an interview with Janet Achurch [for whom he wrote the title-role of Candida and refused to let anyone else play]: It seems to me that it might be good business for Sketch to interview her as to her now celebrated adventures in New York with Richard Mansfield over my play Candida (24 June 1895); (ii) the editor of The Sketch: [Frederick Henry] Evans, who is probably the best photographer in England, has just done a very fine photograph of me If you would reproduce it full size & do full justice to its quality, no doubt I could persuade him to consent to hand it over for publication (9 October 1896); (iii) C. Duncan Lucas, apologising for being elusive, through being between an election and a series of rehearsals (5 November 1900), torn; (iv) Francis Howard [Chairman of the National Portrait Society], expressing skepticism about an invitation: I rather approve of any public demonstration of the essential identity of all the arts; but I suspect you of wanting to exploit me as a speaker at banquets (which I loathe) and all manner of responsibilities of that kind (7 January 1908); (v) Mrs Girdlestone, regretting that he is too far out of the musical world to help: If I were a violinist, I should get an intelligent dog to collect pence whilst I played in the streets (12 March 1908); (vi) an unidentified correspondent, advising them on how to get a play performed, recommending that they eschew agents and join the Society of Authors instead, laid down (24 February 1910); (vii) Mrs OByrne, regretting that I shall have to go to the workhouse instead, though I do not propose to establish myself there permanently as yet and that he has a long string of engagements as a public person which leaves the poor private man no chance, the card stamped with a Sheldonian shamrock (3 October 1910); (viii) Beatrix, sending her £25 as a wedding present: Spend it foolishly, as if you were a millionairess: otherwise it wont be a real present (25 November 1912); (ix) Dear Sirs, giving guarded approval to his being mentioned in a book: a mere indiscretion occurring in a book of indiscretions without my authorization would not worry me (21 September 1923); (x) Maurice Baring, the author and friend of Chesterton, giving literary advice: The play requires delicate casting and handling; and the chances of its getting either under the circumstances are very slender On the whole I should send the play to G.K . (30 April 1925); (xi) Mrs Aubrey le Blond (see above), apologising for being unable to welcome Henri Bernstein in person (6 April 1927), plus card; (xii) Dame Laurentia McLachlan OSB of Stanbrook Abbey [see The Nun, the Infidel & the Superman], sending greetings from Venice after his visit to the Holy Land and complaining that his camera piously refused to work (16 April 1931); (xiii) Dr McManus, launching into a trenchant diatribe on his health and that of [his cousin] Aida (11 May 1933); (xiv) the Gandhi disciple Hermann Kallenbach, thanking him a volume of Tolstoy (30 November 1936); (xv) the Rev George Naylor, regretting that he cannot take on an adoption as There are too many refugees and widows about (23 April 1939); (xvi) the Foreign Office, concerning Edens invitation to meet the Chinese Mission: I was morally present, though as I am physically a dotard of 87, forbidden to venture out of doors after dark, I was invisible (8 December 1943); (xvii) the journalist Clarence H. Norman [whom Shaw had employed to take shorthand reports of his speeches], on his wifes death: To become a widower is a curious experience; for it is only then that one discovers how much ones life is governed by ones wife, if the marriage is a success (23 May 1948); (xviii) Dorothy Woodman, thanking her for the book but saying he does not like the pictures: Ceylon made a great impression on me: I felt that here I had found the originals of the human race, all the other nations being mass-produced copies I get nothing of this from [Lionel] Wendt, damn his eyes (3 June 1950); plus: (xix) letters by his secretary Blanche Patch ( Mr Bernard Shaw desires me to say that the idea of giving St Joan any specific local dialect proved impracticable. She speaks like any countrywoman, but not like any particular countrywoman ); (xx) fragments ( The great thing is not to bother with achieved work, but to write another. A few novels of mine made quite a little success last year in America. I wrote them in 1879-83, and no publisher would touch them! Its the writing of them that makes a workman of the author. Their rejection only makes a fool of the publisher, which doesnt matter ); (xxi) a typed article-letter signed by Shaw, to the Editor of the Spectator, comparing the comparative wages of playwrights and programme-seller, marked up for publication, with an initialled autograph compliments-card (31 August 1925); (xxii) a pamphlet On Modern Composition reprinted by H.J.B. Craven from The Caxton Magazine, out-of-series copy, this copy signed by Shaw below the portrait frontispiece (1921), with a letter by Blanche Patch, stating that its issue was unauthorized ( I remember that Mr Craven was told that he must withdraw it from circulation. I do not think it was issued for sale ); and (xxiii) a typescript of Are the Sane Mad? A Play in Three Acts by T.P Hurley of Dublin, inscribed and initialled by Shaw on 8 June 1946 ( This is very crude, in places almost childish. But the crudity and the childishness are dramatic; and I shall not be surprised if the author figures as a successful playwright within the next six years or so ), some 25 items, dust-staining etc., but generally in good condition, 1895-1950

Footnotes

A FINE COLLECTION OF LETTERS AND CARDS BY SHAW, displaying characteristic pungency, pertinency, drollery and wit.

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